The present invention relates to mass spectrometer or ion mobility spectrometer that is able to automatically determine and indicate when it is required to be cleaned.
It can be time consuming and difficult to diagnose and isolate the cause of poor sensitivity or lack of signal in a mass spectrometer or ion mobility spectrometer. Such problems can lead to an engineer having to visit the customer site and may also lead to users wasting sample sets before they realise that there is a problem with the instrument. Problems such as these increase the downtime of the instruments and ultimately increase the cost of their ownership. An automated technique of diagnosing such issues and providing the user with information on how to rectify them would therefore be highly advantageous.
It is therefore desired to provide an improved mass spectrometer or ion mobility spectrometer and an improved method of operating such a spectrometer.